History 109
American History to Reconstruction
Fall 2014
Francis William Edmunds, “Taking the Census” (1854)
Lecture Days: MW
Class Times: 10‐10:50
Class Location: SHW-012
Professor: Edward J. Blum
Contact Information: eblum@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours Times (and by appointment): M and W, 11:00‐1
Office Hours Location: AL 525
TA: Anna Hetherington
Contact Information: Hetherington.anna@gmail.com
Section Number and Classroom: Section 1 meets in GMCS 307
Section 2 meets in AH 2112
Office: Arts and Letters 564. Office
Office Hours: Monday 11:00am-12:00pm and by appointment
Course Overview: (catalogue description)
United States history from pre-colonial societies to Reconstruction. Contact of cultures, patterns
of settlement, contests over racial, ethnic, religious, class, gender, regional, and national
identities and institutions. Satisfies the American Institutions requirement in American history
and United States Constitution.
Beginning with the encounters between Native Americans and European explorers, this course
extends to the aftermath of the American Civil War. It will consider the landing of European
settlers, the transformation of Native American societies, the enslavement, exploitation, and
creativity of African captives and their descendants, the rise of the women’s rights movement,
several wars, two or three revolutions, and maybe even the origins of baseball. We will look at
the faltering progress of democracy, the frustrations of free government, the settling of the West,
the building of an industrial nation, and of course the Great Rebellion (also known as the Civil
War, the War Between the States, or the Confederate Revolution). Throughout the course, we
will pay special attention to figures who have been often ignored as important historical
characters.
Learning Outcomes:
 Students will gain content knowledge of events, peoples, and ideas of American history
to Reconstruction.
 Students will analyze primary sources within the contexts of debates among historians.
 Students will discuss historical problems on American colonization, the origins of the
American Revolution, the rise of American industry, and the origins and outcomes of the
Civil War.
 Students will examine historical relationships between the age of European exploration
and colonizing of North America, economic and sectional change, and slavery and the
Civil War.
 Students will demonstrate in writing and speaking how the diversity of cultures and
groups in the American past have influenced American history.
 Students will argue in writing and speaking as professional historians do.
Enrollment Information
 No prerequisites
Course Materials
Required Materials (including all acceptable text editions)

Bundle: Schultz HIST, Volume 1 : US History Through 1877 (with CourseMate Access Card)
(3rd edition, 2014); Frakes, Writing for College History : A Short Handbook (2004); CobbsHoffman/Blum/Gjerde, Major Problems in American History, Volume I (3rd edition, 2012).
Bundle ISBN # 9781305248557

Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey, The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of
Race in America (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)
Grade Breakdown:
Your grade will be based upon three areas: quizzes, discussion participation, and essays. Failing
to turn in one of the essays or missing more than half of the reading quizzes will result in an
automatic failure of the class.
Your discussion grade will be assessed by two factors: 1) attendance at section; 2) participation
in discussion. The quizzes will be based upon the course reading and will be done via
Coursemate and/or in section. Your essays will consist of learning how to put together a history
paper – with appropriate footnotes, a thesis/argument, clear prose, and thoughtful analysis.
Quizzes:
Discussion:
Essay 1 Outline:
Essay 1:
Essay 2:
Extra Credit:
Extra Credit:
20%
30% (15% is attendance while the other 15% will be participation in the
form of: speaking, writing, pop quizzes etc within discussion section)
10% (late papers will be deducted 3 points for each day so if you are 2
days late, the highest grade you can receive is 6%)
15%
25%
Attend lecture by Dr. Jana Riess (5% addition to your discussion grade)
Locate a piece of American art from the time period and analyze it as
Blum and Harvey analyze artwork in The Color of Christ
Other Course Policies
Plagiarism: using someone else’s ideas without properly attributing it to them, that’s plagiarism.
For SDSU’s policies on cheating, see http://infotutor.sdsu.edu/plagiarism/index.cfm
**If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class,
it is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid any
delay in the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as
soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that accommodations
based upon disability cannot be provided until you have presented your instructor with an
accommodation letter from Student Disability Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.
Schedule: Course Structure and Conduct
BE SURE TO INCLUDE FRAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Week 1: First Collisions
August 25: Syllabus and Overview
August 27: Old Worlds Collide
Discussion:
Reading:
Hist3, Table of Contents
Major Problems, preface and introduction
Color of Christ, prologue
Writing for College History: Ch. 1
Week 2: The Age of Encounters
September 1: NO CLASS – LABOR DAY
September 3: Confusion, Conflict, and Contact
Discussion:
Reading:
Hist3, chapters 1-2
Major Problems, chapters 1-2
Writing for College History: Ch. 2
Week 3: Colonial Outposts to Colonial Settlements
September 8: Colonial Outposts
September 10: The English in America
Discussion: “The Definition of Freedom”- tentative (women, slaves, southerners,
northerners, native Americans etc)
Reading:
Hist3, chapters 3-4
Major Problems, chapter 3
Writing for College History: Ch. 3
Week 4: The Revolution
September 15: Growth and Conflict
September 17: Big Enough to Kill
Discussion: “Outline and Essay Writing 101”
Reading:
Hist3, chapters 5-6
Major Problems, chapter 4
Week 5: Making a Nation, Making a People
September 22: An Empire of Troubles
September 24: Colonial Unity
Discussion:
DUE: Essay One Outline
EXTRA CREDIT LECTURE:
Jana Riess, “New Religions, New Texts, New Technologies” (Wednesday, 3:00 PM)
Reading:
Hist3, chapter 7-8
Major Problems, chapters 5-6
Week 6: Of Markets and Men
September 29: The Market Revolution
October 1: The Rise of Herrenvolk Democracy
Discussion:
Reading:
Hist3, chapters 9-11
Major Problems, chapters 7-8
Week 7: An Unsteady Republic
October 6: Regionalisms
October 8: Reformers
Discussion:
Reading:
Hist3, chapter 12
Major Problems, chapter 9-10
Week 8: The Brink of War
October 13: Slavery in the West
October 15: Words and Weapons
Discussion:
Due: Final Paper #1
Reading:
Hist3, chapter 13-14
Major Problems, chapter 11-12
Week 9: War is Hell
October 20: Union Forever
October 22: Emancipation
Reading:
Hist3, chapter 15
Major Problems, chapter 13-14
Week 10: Reconstructing the People
October 27: Radicalism Triumphant
October 29: Conservatism Victorious
Discussion
Reading:
Hist3, chapter 16
Major Problems, chapter 15
Week 11: Back to the Beginning
November 3: When Christ Crossed the Sea
November 5: Guest Lecture
Discussion:
Reading:
The Color of Christ, introduction and chapter 1
Week 12: Revolutions and New Nations
November 10: Revolutionary Visions
November 12: From Light to White
Discussion
Reading:
Color of Christ, chapters 2 and 3
Week 13: Body Battles
November 17: Body Battles in Antebellum America
November 19: Christ in the Camps
Discussion
Reading:
Color of Christ, chapters 4 and 5
Week 14: Battle
November 24: Guest Lecture
November 26: The History of Thanksgiving
Discussion: NO DISCUSSION THIS WEEK
Week 15:
December 1: Nordic and Nativist in an Imperial Age
December 3: Proud to be an American
Discussion
Reading:
The Color of Christ, 6
Final: Essay #2 Due, Monday, December 15, 2014